The ‘Hour of Code‘ is a global initiative, introducing computer programming to students and encouraging them to learn how to code. It aims to demystify coding and show that anybody can learn the basics.  Hamlin is both proud and excited to use this week, once again, to highlight the incredible coding that is already happening on our campus. We believe that coding continues to be essential for our girls to meet the challenges of their digital times.

Hour of Code Events: Monday, December 7 – Friday, December 11, 2015

In the Lower School, every class has been scheduled for at least an hour worth of coding instruction with Ms. Windell. Girls will use a variety of coding apps that have been selected to be developmentally appropriate for their age/skill level. These apps include Kodable, LightBot, HopScotch, Blockly Maze, as well as resources from the Code.org website.

In the Middle School, we are excited to offer the girls the opportunity to come in before school and code together. It is our goal that the girls’ interest in coding will be sparked and they will complete at least an hour of code during the week. From 7:50am to 8:25am, Grades 5 and 6 will code under the guidance of Ms. Davis on the first floor of Stanwood, while Grades 7 and 8 will code with Mr. Lengel in the Great Hall.  The girls will explore a combination of Scratch, Lightbot, RoboLogic, CargoBot, CodeAcademy, and Code.org.

On Wednesday, December 9, Middle School parents are encouraged to join the girls and be inspired by a leading woman in the Bay Area tech industry.  Kakul Srivastava is VP of Product Management at GitHub. She is a tech entrepreneur focused on building companies that empower people and create community. Kakul has helped build some of the best loved consumer tech products — Adobe’s Photoshop line of software, Flickr, Yahoo! Messenger, and Yahoo! Mail. She was the founder and CEO of Tomfoolery, Inc., a start-up dedicated to making beautiful social apps for work. Tomfoolery was bought by Yahoo in 2014. Kakul is a graduate of MIT with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, and also holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. She serves as Co-Chair on the Board of Cure Violence, a nonprofit dedicated to stopping violence in some of the world’s most high-risk communities, and is an active volunteer, advising in official and unofficial roles, to a number of start-ups and non-profits. She lives in SF with her husband and two children.

Administrators & teachers will be dedicating some of their meeting time to learning the basics of coding, and the entire Hamlin community are encouraged to join in the fun!  Make the commitment to try something new – and to learn to code for sixty minutes at some point during the week!